Mandarin Orange Chick'n with Rice Balls

Hello everyone! Today I decided to try making a lunch that looked more authentic for a bento box.  So I decided on orange chick'n and rice. :)
I used Garein Mandarin Orange Chick'n with I personally LOVE!

Here is the link to their site: http://gardein.com/

They have very good chicken substitutes as well as beef and fish. (I really only like the chicken, the beef has a rather strange flavor, but if you are looking for beef alternatives I'd suggest Morningstar.  I really enjoy their beef substitutes.)  So if your family is a meatless Mondays family or have a certain day with no meat this is a very good option.  I can find this brand at my local Walmarts and Target.  I haven't seen it at any Hyvee yet though.

So onto my lunch! :)

The bottom portion has the Mandarin Orange Chick'n on the right, steamed broccoli and mushrooms in the middle, and rice balls on the left.  (The two brown rice balls just have some soy sauce added for color and flavor).

The top portion contains cottage cheese with a little pepper on top and fresh peaches.

And of course I had to add a few adorable pins to the meal. :D

Well I hope you check out Gardein and maybe try some of their food. And let me know what you think of it! :)

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Veronica :)

My Birthday and New Bento Stuffs!

I am now 20! :)  And I got a few new bento things for lunches. :D  I got cute picks, a few new bento boxes/containers, as well as some little containers for inside my containers.  Oh! and I now have a few adorable rice molds and egg molds! :D

Anyways, I'm hoping to be on here more now that I have "easier" containers.  The blue one that you have seen on my previous posts is a pain to work with on a daily basis.  On many occasions I would just not pack something because it was too much work/time to deal with those particular containers.

So on to my first lunch with a few of my new items!

The top portion contains cookies and cream chocolate cake (leftover birthday cake) with a clementine and cottage cheese.
The bottom portion contains two pb&j sandwiches and celery with two adorable new picks. :D  The small container has a little bit of pb for my celery.

I will hopefully have more fun things to show you later this week. :P


I hope you all are having a wonderful day!
Veronica :)

"Cajun" Muffins

My grandma made some "cajun" muffins one day years ago and never wrote down the recipe.  So we have been experimenting trying to discover what she used in them.  We have had some attempts but they were lackluster compared to the original.  The other day we tried another attempt at them, and it didn't turn out half bad.  Not as spicy as I wanted, but yummy none the less.

I decided to pack them for lunch and they were very yummy even cold.

"Cajun" Muffin Recipe
1 pouch of corn bread mix (not sweet)
1/2 cup black and red beans and rice
1/2 cup mexicorn
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
4-6 green onions, chopped

Cook beans and rice.  Follow the directions for cornbread mix and mix in bowl.  Add all other ingredients and mix well.  Put in greased muffin tins (I used mini tins) and follow cooking instructions for cornbread, add time as needed until done.

Bottom of my lunch contained: "Cajun" Muffins, butter (in Glad container), Peanut butter cookie and a chocolate chip cookie, and smoked cheddar cheese (under cookies)

Top portion contained: cantaloupe, strawberries with sugar, and celery with Peanut butter.

I really enjoyed these muffins and feel free to try out the recipe and add/delete anything to it.  If you do let me know what you tried good or bad. :D

Have a wonderful day!!

Veronica :)

Breakfast for Lunch

I had a day where I had to cook up pancake mix that would be going bad soon, so I made a lot of pancakes!  So I decided to pack some for lunch. :)

Top Portion: Chocolate pancakes and blueberry pancakes, Morningstar Sausage patties, and syrup.

Bottom Portion: Strawberries, bananas, celery with peanut butter, and smoked gouda cheese.

I really enjoyed this lunch because it was something different then my normal lunch.

Have a wonderful day!

Veronica :)

Vegetarian Chicken Salad Sandwiches

So the second day of using my chicken salad i made sandwiches. :D

Two potato bread sliders with chicken salad, lettuce, and tomatoes.  Ranch dip and cantaloupe.

The top portion had carrots, smoked cheddar cheese, chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting, and strawberries with some sugar on them.

This was a very yummy lunch and will definitely make my chicken salad again. :D

Hope you are having a good day!

Veronica :)

Vegetarian Chicken Salad

Hey everyone!  Sorry I have been away for soo long!  I have been rather busy so far this summer, but I have managed to take pictures of some of my lunches/dinners the past couple weeks which I will be posting today. :)

First up, my vegetarian chicken salad. :)  All I use is Quorn breadless chicken fillets.  Heat them and chop them up and chill them in the fridge.  I then add mayo and pickle relish.

So for this lunch I had chicken salad on a bed of lettuce with tomato wedges, crackers, ranch, and smoke gouda and smoke cheddar cheeses.  The yellow plastic thing on the left is a foldable spoon for the salad. :)

The top half had broccoli and carrots (ranch in bottom portion), strawberries, and chocolate covered raisins.

I hope you try the amazingly yummy chicken salad sometime. ;)

And hope you are having a wonderful day. :D

Veronica :)

Fresh Tomatoes!!!!

So I finally got a chance to go to my "local" farmer's market (It's about 15 miles away from my house).  They haven't gotten a whole lot of fresh produce, but I did manage to get a few things.  Mainly tomatoes and strawberries!!
I was also in rush while making this bento so it is definitely not pretty, but it is soooo yummy!!!

The top section contains strawberries, colby jack cheese slices, and a chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. :)

The bottom portion is just a mayo, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on potato bread.  (This sandwich is one of my favorites because it's super simple and very yummy.)

If you have never tried homegrown tomatoes you don't know what you are missing!! They are sooo much better than store bought.  So much better.  Same with strawberries and any other produce.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. :)

Veronica :)

Vegetable Soup with Mickey Sandwiches

So walking around the store I discovered a jar of Randall's Mixed Beans.  I had never heard of this brand before but the ingredients were shockingly simple.  Literally just beans, water, salt, and sugar.

So I picked up a jar and decided I would make some sort of soup with it.  I picked up some vegetable stock, large white onions, red pearl onions, shallots, celery, carrots, red potatoes and yellow potatoes.  As you can tell from my list of items I love onions.  They are one of my favorite veggies.  Sadly I don't have a recipe for this soup exactly because I just threw in a bit of this and that.  I used the entire jar of beans (undrained), a container of vegeatable stock, about 8 potatoes of each (red and yellow), 3 shallots, half of a very large white onion (it was about the size of a head of lettuce), about 10 red pearl onions, a stalk of celery, and 2 carrots.  Obviously it is all preference though.  I also added some dried onion flakes, dried garlic flakes, and pepper. :)

I decided to pack this for a lunch and I do have a microwave available so I would be able to reheat it instead of putting it in a thermos.  And here is the finished soup.  I let it sit on low on the stove for about 5 hours, but a crockpot would work as well, I was just too lazy to dig around to find my crockpot. :p

I used two separate containers for this lunch because I don't have a bento that would work (still in the process of finding ones I like).

I also got new toys!!  I got Mickey Mouse cookie cutters as well as Hello Kitty cookie cutters.  The Mickey ones are in this lunch. :)

I pack two butter sandwiches (unhealthy I know, but it's my cracker for vegetable soup), the right sandwich has colby jack cheese and the left has smoked cheddar cheese (delicious), I have two grape kabobs as well as strawberries and cantaloupe butterflies and flowers.  Also the little red thing on the top left is a plastic cocktail fork for the loose fruit. :)  Not pictured: my spoon, and a Chobani Champion yogurt tube (Strawberry flavored).

Well that's all for the day.  I'm excited that I am finally getting some gadgets to play with in the kitchen and make my lunches look a bit cuter. :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and beginning of summer. :D

Veronica :)

Nancy's Tomato Provolone Deli Spirals

After walking around my local Walmart I discovered something I haven't had in years.  It was Nancy's Deli Spirals.  I remembered loving these as a child so I grabbed a box.

The other flavor within the box was Turkey, Bacon, Ranch (which I can't eat unfortunately) so those were given to another member of my household.  I was/am still not feeling 100% after my sudden illness so I decided to once again make another snack box for while I am working and reading. :)

The bottom half of my snack box included Tomato Provolone Deli Spirals, cantaloupe, strawberries, red and green grapes, and a clementine.

The top half included carrots, broccoli, ranch for dipping, and dark chocolate pudding.

The is the type of thing I wish I had cute picks to brighten it even more. :(  Hopefully soon though! :)

Needless to say this snack box was very yummy and light enough to not make me nauseous.  I didn't eat it all within a short time though, it was quite a bit of food for one sitting.  I sat and read a book while eating it so it lasted a couple of hours. :p

I hope everyone is doing well out there. :)

Veronica :)

Snack Box

So since I haven't been feeling all together well, all I have been wanting to it is fresh fruits and veggies.  Anything cooked or greasy in any way makes my stomach turn.  So I decided to pack a lot of fruits and veggies and have them throughout the day and not just for one sitting.

 I packed red and green grapes, strawberries, and a clementine.

I also packed some celery with peanut butter and some chocolate.  The left has chocolate covered peanuts with a turtle sitting on top and the right has chocolate covered raisins with a turtle on top.  Needless to say I didn't eat ALL of the chocolate, but the whole idea of fresh fruit and veggies for the day was really awesome and very yummy! :)

Veronica :)

Bubba's Bagels

So I came down with something this last week, I have not idea what it was and I still feel a bit queasy.  I was unable to post a few lunches and things so I will try to get them posted today and this weekend for you guys. :)

First up, I came across an unknown bagel brand in my local Hyvee called Bubba's Bagels:

 So I decided to make a bagel sandwich with one with my left over tuna.

I also included some kettle corn and strawberry yogurt.

As well as a clementine and celery with peanut butter.

The bagel was to die for!!  I can't believe how yummy it truly was, and I will definitely continue to buy this brand from now on!  It was soft but not chewy and had a wonderful texture and flavor.  Just yum!

Feel free to comment or leave links to your blog in the comments, I would love to see other ideas and your creativity. :)

Veronica :)

Uncrustable Tuna Salad Sandwich

So I got my first Bento gift yesterday! :)

It was a sandwich cutter that makes them into sealed uncrustables.  So exciting!  So I started off making a simple PB&J to try it out and it worked amazingly.  Then I wanted to try something more interesting so I decided to try a tuna salad with lettuce uncrustable.  Here are the pictures.

Inside Top: Sliced Strawberries and Kiwi.  Celery with Peanut Butter.

Inside Bottom: Tuna and lettuce uncrustable.  Chobani Champions Strawberry Yogurt.  Kettle Corn.

I waited to post this because I wanted to wait until I had eaten it to show a picture of inside the sandwich.  It was awesome and the cutter worked great!!  I will be making this again along with egg salad sandwiches and "chicken" salad and all sorts of others. :D

Veronica :)

Immaculate Cinnamon Rolls with Icing

I ran across these Cinnamon Rolls in the Health Department of my local Hyvee.  I have never heard of the brand, so I was interested.  I was also a tad worried they would be flavorless (but anything has to be better than that processed Pillsbury flavor) so I decided to give them a try. 

 I ripped the package hence the tape.  I didn't think of taking a picture before I opened it.

I had a hard time opening the package, the air didn't pop it open like it should have so I had to just keep poking the knife along the crease until I could rip it open with my hands. I placed the five cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet and put them in the oven.  After they were done I poured the vanilla icing on and yum!!!

The icing was sweet but not too sweet.  Just enough cinnamon.  And it had a nice doughy texture with a bit of a butter flavor.  So yummy!

 Needless to say, I hope my Hyvee still carries these when I go back.  I will want to buy 10 of them. lol
I also bought their crescents, but I have not tried them yet.  I will let you all know how they are after I've tried them! :)

Veronica :)

Flower Lunch

First time using cookie cutters for my lunch. :)

Top includes: Cream Cheese and flower cucumbers along with some Simply SunChips

Bottom includes: PB&J sandwich flowers (two large and two small with toothpicks holding them) and sliced apples.

I had fun using the cookie cutters for this lunch.  The only problem I had was with the cookie cutters ripping the bread.  I had to freeze the sandwich for a bit to harden the bread so it wouldn't just fall apart.  If you guys have any suggestion please leave them in the comments. I would really appreciate it. :)

Veronica :)

Vegetarian Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

I mentioned making this in an earlier post and wanted to post the recipe here.  I was in a hurry so I don't have step by step pictures, but I do have a picture of the final product and the recipe for the gravy and the biscuits.

Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450º.

2. In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Then add shortening and cut in with a pastry blender or two knives.  Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in milk, mix until soft dough forms that leaves side of bowl.

3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, kneed 6 to 8 strokes to mix.  Roll out with a floured rolling pin, 1/2 inch thick for high, fluffy biscuits, 1/4 inch thick for thin, crusty biscuits.

4. Cut biscuits with a biscuit cutter.  Place biscuits on ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Gravy

4 Tbsp butter

4 1/2 Tbsp flour

2 cups milk (I use skim milk)

8 MorningStar sausage patties, diced

Pepper, to taste

1. Combine butter in flour in saucepan until smooth.

2. Add milk to saucepan and stir on medium heat until thickened. (This will thicken more or less with what milk you use, a higher fat content the faster/thicker it will be.)

3. Once thick add pepper.  I don’t measure the amount I use, but I use A LOT.  I probably use about 1/4 cup or more in mine, but I like it spicier.  It’s whatever you want for flavor, the more pepper you use the spicier.

4. Heat up sausages and cut into pieces and then add to gravy. 

Here is what the finished product looks like.  I will admit it doesn't look very appetizing, but you try to make sausage gravy look good. :p

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave a comment. :)

Veronica :)

The Classic Lunch

I am in desperate need to go shopping, so I decided to just stick to the classic lunch, PB & J.  Which for me isn't a bad thing, I love PB & J, I could probably eat it every day of the week, which I used to do.  I just think they are sooo yummy!!

The top portion of my lunch contained black olives, mixed fruit, and Simply Sun Chips. (I really need to get to the store mainly for fresh fruits and veggies, I've been living off canned for a little too long at this point. :p

The bottom portion contains my amazing PB & J cut in half, my Pom Berry yogurt smoothie (AMAZING!), a piece of chocolate, and my spoon for the fruit.

That's all for today, I also made some vegetarian sausage gravy with homemade biscuits.  I was in a hurry while making it though and didn't get pictures. :/  But I do plan on putting the recipes up for you guys. :)
And maybe making another batch with pictures so you can see it, it was so yummy I will want to make it again. :p

Comments always appreciated.
Veronica :)

Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese

Cheese. I love cheese. :)
And I love Gouda cheese probably the most.  And who doesn't love mac & cheese? So I decided to put my two favorite things together and make Gouda Mac & Cheese. Yum!

So I started off with a simple white sauce recipe of milk, flour, and butter.

Then I added a bunch of yummy Gouda cheese.

Then added cooked macaroni to the sauce and put it into a casserole dish.

Doesn't that just look yummy! 

I cooked this in the oven for about 30 minutes then topped it off with the rind of the cheese and put it in the oven for a few extra minutes.

Yummy!!!! :D

Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese

2 Tbsp flour (if using skim milk you may have to add an extra 1/2 Tbsp)
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups milk (I tend to use skim to cut back on the fat from all the cheese)
2 cups shredded Smoked Gouda (you can use any cheese you would like for this part)
3-4 cups cooked pasta
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Set oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook macaroni if you have not already done so.
3. Melt butter in saucepan until melted then add flour stirring constantly until well blended and smooth. (I usually do this step on medium heat.)
4. Add milk to flour/butter mixture and stir constantly until blended and thickened. (I do want to say this step may take a while, it will thicken, it just may take a lot longer than you think.)
5. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the cheese mixing until smooth.  If it seems like it's not smoothing out, put back on stove on medium heat and stir constantly until smooth.
6. Mix macaroni into sauce and pour into an 8 x 8 saucepan.  Place in oven for about 30 minutes until bubbling.
7. Add extra cheese to top along with whatever else you would like.  I used the rind of the Smoked Gouda cheese wheel, you could add breadcrumbs, panko, whatever you like.  :)

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I did. :)

Have a wonderful day!

Veronica :)

Greek "Gyro" Bento

So I have fallen in love with the pita bread (the brand is Papa Pita)  from my last post and decided to make a vegetarian "gyro" wrap for my bento.  Soooo yummy!

The top part has my Oikos Cucumber Dill dip on the top right, Honey Bible Bread on the top right, and the bottom portion has a chocolate and some Morning Star Chicken Nuggets.

The bottom portion of my bento contains lettuce, tomatoe, cucumber shreds on the left and black olives.  It also has a cup of pears and my spoon.

Hope everyone is having an awesome day. :)

Veronica :)

First Bento

This isn't actually my first bento, but it is my first bento on here. :)
Also I do want to let everyone know I don't have any tools to make my bento food cute (hopefully coming soon).

This lunch is a very plain and basic.  It's actually one of my go-to lunches that I tend to make a lot.

In this picture you can mainly only see my Pita Bread. 

This picture shows my salad (lettuce and tomato), mixed fruit cup, my container of honey mustard dressing, a Lindt dark chocolate orange truffle, and my fork.

The top half of my bento has cheese (for salad), gouda cheese spread and crackers, and Morningstar chicken nuggets for salad.

I make my salad and put as much as I can on my pita to make a wrap, and then I have a salad as well. :)

Very yummy!

~Veronica :)

About Me

Hello :),

My name is Veronica and I am 19 (almost 20), and I am currently a college student.  Soon to get my Associates in Psychology in a week and then transfer to a four year to get my Bachelors.  I am wanting to start packing bento-style lunches for myself (I'm a pescatarian) and boyfriend.  Mainly to eat healthier and I hope they will be fun. :)

Also I want to try tons of recipes over the summer, so I am hoping to put up pictures and recipes for what turns out (and maybe the ones that don't turn out).

Follow me and leave a comment and introduce yourself. :)

~Veronica :)

New To This

I have never had a blog before or ever considered doing one, but I have recently decided to try it. :)

I plan to have this blog be about bento lunches (which I am very new to) and cooking/baking with pictures and recipes.

I have a feeling no one will ever see this, but it will give me something to do that I hopefully enjoy.

Also feel free to comment if you are interested in this blog and if you want me to do anything in particular with it, I'm up for ideas. :)

~Veronica :)